My first Mustang

So today I joined the dark side and bought my first Mustang. It is a 95 3.8L 5 speed. 238899 kms. It is a sun bleached flat black and it is ugly as sin

Obviously this means the best place to start my work is under the hood. Now the question is do I work on this engine or buy a new one and an engine stand. Her name is Mustang Sally and for a 3.8L she is seriously lacking power! She has been sitting for 8 months and I put a brand new battery in there.

Do I start with a MSD ignition box, distributer cap, wires, and gonna need input on plugs. Or do I just leave her as is and get a crate engine to work on?

Well How does the original engine run? Do you like the original engine or are you looking for more power?
I personally would keep what's in there. Work on what you got instead and that way you will learn more about your car better than anyone.
Congratulations on your new mustang!!! I love mustangs my first car was a mustang as well.
Do you have picks of Sally?

If I was you I would do exactly just what you said first. Do the normal tune up things, caps wires plugs oil changes for everything coolant changes etc. Then just see how she runs. You'll get good experience by doing those things and in the end if it is still not to your liking, not much will have been lost as most of those jobs are really inexpensive.

I took her out for a drive and a photoshoot yesterday. I noticed that when starting from a stop, especially going up a hill she has NO POWER! I have to pump or floor the gas before I let out the clutch or I'm pretty sure she will stall as there is extremely low RPMs. Ideas?

Do I do all this to my engine and pay $3000 for a new M90 Super Charger. Or do I buy a used thunderbird with the Super Charged 3.8L in it and do these mods to that engine. Or buy a used thunderbird and put its super charger on my engine that has 285934 kilometers?

Firstly your car doesn't have a distributer cap, it has a coil pack, similar in basic functionality but totally different.

If you're looking to do anything to the car you're looking at pretty much a complete restoration here. Keep in mind that car is now 20 years old and everything on it is likely....20 years old. The motor isn't totally gone yet, but it's definitely through half of it's life and it would not be a wise idea to mod such a motor.

If you're looking for power your best bet is going to also be your most expensive, and your lack of knowledge is going to hurt you a bit. So with that said your best route would be buying a completely new rebuilt engine block (you can usually get these for under $1000). Next, go to a junk yard or ebay (yuck) and find a set of 99-04 V6 heads and lower intake, have them cleaned and the heads machined and rebuilt and ported if you like. Then buy the M112 V6 kit (about $3000). Next buy a 99-04 V6 Wiring harness and ECU. Yes you can use most of your current harness on a 99-04 V6, however being 20 years old odds are spots of it are dry rotten and will fray/break upon touching them or removing sensors. Then buy 99-04 wires, coil, etc. Lastly buy your transmission of choice. If you get an auto make sure your get a 4R70W and the ECU to match. If you get a T5 or T45 manual again get the ecu to match. Me personally, since you're already deep in this thing, I'd get a T56 transmission. It'll work better with the supercharger and is much, much, much more durable than the T45/T5s which are a POS in my gods honest opinion for modded cars. Don't forget it would also be extremely wise to get a 8.8" rear end out of a GT/Cobra as your factory rear end would not be best for this setup.

Now with all this done you won't have a super fast street machine, at least not by modern terms, but if done correctly you will have a rebuilt car with all new components that offers decent modern performance. Yes, you will be able to have bought a newer/faster car with the money invested, but that's the price you pay for such investments. Also keep in mind none of this will really help the value of the car upon resell.

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